Climate denial rests on the assumption that 97% of climate scientists who believe climate change is caused by human behaviour are wrong, and, remarkably, a small group of mostly journalists, politicians, business people, and general non-scientists - many with strong links to the fossil fuel industry - have managed to disprove the link between human behaviour and climate change, and in doing so unearthed a global science conspiracy.

G.K. Chesterton said that "when people stop believing in orthodox religion, rather than believe in nothing, they will believe in anything". One of the ersatz religions which fills the void in recent years is belief in catastrophic man-made global warming. It claims to be based on science. But it has all the characteristics of an eschatological cult.